For
An Independent Foreign Policy
By M.K.Bhadrakumar
01 November, 2006
The
Hindu
The U.S. Secretary of State,
Condoleeza Rice's whistle stop tour of Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Moscow
last weekend offered a glimpse of the acute limits to American power
in the post-Cold War period.
The `Bush Doctrine' lies
in ruins. North Korea's nuclear test and the security paradigm in Northeast
Asia irretrievably scatter what remained of the illusions of the U.S.'s
containment strategy in global politics. Equally, it has become glaringly
apparent that the contemporary world is right in a period of great upheavals
and great adjustments, and the relative capacity of the U.S. is declining
in unilaterally imposing crisis settlement on any of the nations that
President George W. Bush nonchalantly characterised as comprising the
"axis of evil" — be it in respect of the turmoil in
Iraq, the impasse in North Korea or the Iran nuclear issue.
To be sure, communication
and coordination, tolerance and mutual understanding are the prerequisites
of solving problems in an interdependent world. Globalisation dictates
the need for a collective response of the world community to global
challenges and threats, and it curbs the scope for unilateralism. From
India's perspective, the milieu demands a multi-vector foreign policy
— a non-aligned, independent foreign policy — that is a
function of our internal changes.
Historical experience
Historical experience shows
that a good foreign policy is an open and predictable one that reinforces
the economic and the social fabric of society, which of course is possible
only in conditions of stability. In turn, such a foreign policy requires
a compromise of all the sections and, social and political groups in
the country. And, while keeping pace with the progressive path of national
development, it must customarily call for public consensus.
Yet in these vital respects,
our foreign policy in the past decade or so has suffered from `political
apathy'. What is appalling is that the resultant vacuum in the Indian
discourses has been filled with ideas that are not at all innocuous
and are pernicious to healthy social development — nationalism,
populism, xenophobia and intolerance.
Political parties ought to
play a key role by acting as catalysts of discussion on foreign policy,
just as in any democratic process. They are after all the brokers between
citizens and state institutions, capable of moulding public opinion
and offering models of solution to the problems facing the state and
society. Regrettably, with the solitary exception of the Left parties,
this is not happening in India. The Congress has alas abandoned its
tradition of co-relating India's tryst with destiny to the fate of humanity.
The BJP is marooned in vacuous rhetoric. As for myriad regional parties,
though destined to wield levers of national power, they are light years
away from developing any worldview. Thus our political system's ability
to respond to `impulses from below' has greatly suffered.
Shift in policy
Ninan Koshy's book comes
in the best traditions of the moribund Great Indian Debate on foreign
policy issues. It is refreshing to see Koshy audaciously barging into
the cosy little circle of one-dimensional men in Delhi who form the
foreign affairs experts' team within our strategic community.
Koshy puts under the scanner
the presumptions and alibis that have been advanced as justification
for the paradigm shift in our foreign policy since the National Democratic
Alliance Government came to power, in the direction of hitching the
Indian wagons to a strategic and military alliance with the United States.
While the discussion forms a necessary backdrop for India's current
diplomatic history, the book's main argument is that the Congress-led
United Progressive Alliance Government has taken the country even further
along the policy tracks laid down by its predecessor on nuclear policy
or West Asia or India's insistent claim to be a `natural ally' of the
U.S.
Independent policy
It has become fashionable
in our strategic community to run down the raison d'être of an
independent foreign policy. This exercise, generally speaking, passes
under the rubric of `realism' in foreign policy. But when a country
like South Korea practises non-alignment in its foreign policy with
such devastating effect in the recent years, and then proceeds to garner
its accumulated reserve of leadership claim in the race for the post
of the U.N. Secretary General, it is an eye opener about the power of
creative thinking.
Or, when People's Daily repeatedly
hails Ban Ki-moon's election as "not only a pride of the Republic
of Korea (ROK) people but a glory to the entire Asian people" and
visualises it as "the outcome of regional balancing... that will
be very favourable for the coordination and consultation between Asia
and other regions," what comes to the mind's eye is the seamless
relevance of an independent foreign policy in the post-Cold War setting.
Not surprisingly, Koshy is
unsparing in his criticism of the UPA Government in ploughing a lonely
furrow in foreign policy predicated on the hypothesis that Washington
is committed to "help India become a major world power in the 21st
century." Yet, he is not polemical. Koshy arrives at his judgement
after leading us through his painstaking, meticulous research, which
he is eminently equipped to undertake, given his distinguished background
as an academic and scholar on international politics, human rights,
disarmament, education and religion.
UNDER THE EMPIRE - India's New Foreign Policy: Ninan
Koshy; LeftWord Books, 12, Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs.
450.
Copyright © 2006, The
Hindu
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